Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Fly to Sydney, Melbourne or Auckland for £1,365 in Business Class

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Air China has launched some amazing deals out of Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Munich in Business Class.

If you looking to head to Australia or New Zealand before the end of June, you probably won’t get better than this.

Here are the deals:

air-china-business-class

Sydney / Melbourne / Auckland – €1604 business, €702 economy

Bangkok / Hong Kong / Taipei / Phuket / Tokyo / Osaka / Seoul / Singapore / Ho Chi Minh City / Colombo – €1247 business / €370 economy

Peking, Shanghai, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Nanjing – €1503 business, €404 economy

The rules are:

Book by 27th December

Fly between 1st January and 30th June (1 month maximum stay)

Depart from Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Munich

Full details can be found, in German, on the Air China website here.  I had no problem finding availability at these prices yesterday.

Air China is a Star Alliance member so you will also earn a chunk of miles which can be credited to Miles & More or another Star frequent flyer programme.


best credit card to use when buying flights

How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 30,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

You can apply here.

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30,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

3,000 bonus points, no fee and 1 point for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

18,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Comments (30)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Samuel says:

    China Southern AMS-HKG in business class for £978 return.

  • LOADS OF MONEY says:

    Why bother when you can go from LHR to any where in Asia for under £4000 in First Class.
    Cheap as chips.

  • Will says:

    Are you guaranteed proper flat beds in business class to AKL on AC? Anyone ever flown AC who can vouch for their standards?

    • Rob says:

      They are Star Alliance and obviously meet all EU safety requirements. You would need to check on SeatGuru etc if seat is fully flat on your aircraft type but all the pics I have seen are flat.

  • Amanda says:

    Trying to get the business class offer on air China from Germany to Sydney in feb or bancock in April and can’t get either. Tried translating site to English and booking in German but couldn’t get anywhere near low fares. Anyone else had any luck?

  • Anon says:

    Rob do most carriers also a sale at Easter to book a year out?

    Relative looking at getting to Singapore & Perth Feb 2018, likely not enough points for a redemption, so a MAL or SIN sale would be good.

    • Rob says:

      You won’t get good long haul deals a year out. 90 days out is more likely when airlines can see the seats are not selling.

      • Anon says:

        Appreciate the quick response, so I guess that’s another hidden added benefit of a redemption Business Class, bagging it 355 days out, peace of mind, and redemptions can be cancelled if a spectacular sale comes up.

        • Talay says:

          Just bagged 241 on Amex / Avios LHR-BKK on 14/12/17 at a few nanoseconds after midnight Xmas Eve.

          There was nothing for SYD which was still around 2 minutes after midnight.

  • Alex says:

    Air China (shivers)

  • Sergeant Major says:

    Any idea how many miles and more miles it would earn for LHR-AKL business on Air China?

    • Third Passport says:

      Good question! The flights I found book into R class but that doesn’t seem to earn any miles on Miles & More. It’s 125% miles on Aegean.

  • David S says:

    If their long haul is anything like their domestic flights we took last year in China, I would give them a wide berth. Poor time keeping (although could be due to the notorious Chinese ATC) ,poor onboard amenities, free food but not very nice and wife got sick after eating their food. The aircraft were OK including their 777 which we flew domestically on one of our legs.
    I suppose Business long haul MIGHT be better but I think I will stick to my QR sales ex EU ( £1450 to Sydney from last sale).

    • Anon says:

      David S – Cracking QR price to Oz, what was the full routing + month of departure and time of year you booked ?

      • David S says:

        OSL-DOH-SYD, SYD-DOH-HEL. Going May 2017. Booked August 2016 on their last big sale. QR usually have a Newyear sale although with Brexit and exchange rate for Euro to Pound, value is not as good as it used to be but still miles better than going ex UK.

    • John says:

      China ATC is controlled by military which always has priority over civilian aircraft.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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